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Conceivability and modal knowledgeIn Tamara Horowitz & Gerald J. Massey (eds.), Thought Experiments in Science and Philosophy, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1991.I argue for an analysis of conceivability as a form of modal knowledge: to conceive of p's being true is to know that "Possibly, p" is true.
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185Epistemology futures (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2006.How might epistemology build upon its past and present, so as to be better in the future? Epistemology Futures takes bold steps towards answering that question. What methods will best serve epistemology? Which phenomena and concepts deserve more attention from it? Are there approaches and assumptions that have impeded its progress until now? This volume contains provocative essays by prominent epistemologists, presenting many new ideas for possible improvements in how to do epistemology. Contrib…Read more
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77Knowledge puzzles: an introduction to epistemologyWestview Press. 1996.Despite the problems students often have with the theory of knowledge, it remains, necessarily, at the core of the philosophical enterprise. As experienced teachers know, teaching epistemology requires a text that is not only clear and accessible, but also capable of successfully motivating the abstract problems that arise.In Knowledge Puzzles, Stephen Hetherington presents an informal survey of epistemology based on the use of puzzles to illuminate problems of knowledge. Each topic is introduce…Read more
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33Parsons and possible objectsAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 62 (3). 1984.This Article does not have an abstract
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27Sceptical insulation and sceptical objectivityAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 72 (4). 1994.This Article does not have an abstract
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34Stove's new irrationalismAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 76 (2). 1998.This Article does not have an abstract
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63Gettieristic scepticismAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 74 (1). 1996.This Article does not have an abstract
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32More on possible objectsAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 66 (1). 1988.This Article does not have an abstract
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61Gettier and scepticismAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 70 (3). 1992.This Article does not have an abstract
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32Self-Knowledge: Beginning Philosophy Right Here and NowBroadview Press. 2007._Self-Knowledge_ introduces philosophical ideas about knowledge and the self. The book takes the form of a personal meditation: it is one person’s attempt to reflect philosophically upon vital aspects of his existence. It shows how profound philosophy can swiftly emerge from intense private reflection upon the details of one’s life and, thus, will help the reader take the first steps toward philosophical self-understanding. Along the way, readers will encounter moments of puzzlement, then clarit…Read more
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50Ginet on A Priori Knowledge: Skills and GradesVeritas – Revista de Filosofia da Pucrs 54 (2): 32-40. 2009.2. Ginet envisages a person’s fully understanding ‘what the sentence p says’ – which is the person’s fully understanding ‘what is said by one who utters p in normal circumstances in order to assert that p’ (p. 3). The understanding involved is direcError: Illegal entry in bfchar block in ToUnicode CMapted at meaning. It is one’s ‘understanding the parts and the structure of the sentence’ (ibid.). In the next section, I say more about the details of such understanding. First, though, here is how …Read more
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48Re: Brains in a vatDialectica 54 (4). 2000.The hypothesis that we are brains in a vat is one which we believe to be false. Could it possibly be true, however? Metaphysical realists accept that our believing it to be false does not entail its falsity. They also accept that if –as brains in a vat –we were to say or think “We are brains in a vat”, then we would be correct. Ever the claimed foe of the metaphysical realist, though, Hilary Putnam argues that the brains‐in‐a‐vat hypothesis cannot be true, in particular that if we were brains in…Read more
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4Yes, but How Do You Know?: Introducing Philosophy Through Sceptical IdeasBroadview Press. 2009._Yes, But How Do You Know?_ is an invitation to think philosophically through the use of sceptical ideas. Hetherington challenges our complacency and asks us to reconsider what we think we know. How much can we discover about our surroundings? What sort of beings are we? Can we trust our own reasoning? Is science all it is cracked up to be? Can we acquire knowledge of God? Are even the contents of our own minds transparent? In inviting, lucid prose, Hetherington addresses these questions and mor…Read more
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86Sceptical possibilities? No worriesSynthese 168 (1). 2009.This paper undermines a paradigmatic form of sceptical reasoning. It does this by describing, and then dialectically dissolving, the sceptical-independence presumption, upon which that form of sceptical reasoning relies.
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25Review of Nicholas Rescher, Philosophical Dialectics: An Essay on Metaphilosophy (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2006 (7). 2006.
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88FallibilismInternet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2005.Fallibilism is the epistemological thesis that no belief (theory, view, thesis, and so on) can ever be rationally supported or justified in a conclusive way. Always, there remains a possible doubt as to the truth of the belief. Fallibilism applies that assessment even to science’s best-entrenched claims and to people’s best-loved commonsense views. Some epistemologists have taken fallibilism to imply skepticism, according to which none of those claims or views are ever well justified or knowledg…Read more
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53Not Actually Hume's Problem: On Induction and Knowing-HowPhilosophy 83 (4): 459. 2008.Philosophers talk routinely of ‘Hume's problem of induction’. But the usual accompanying exegesis is mistaken in a way that has led epistemologists to conceive of ‘Hume's problem’ in needlessly narrow terms. They have overlooked a way of articulating the conceptual problem, along with a potential way of solving it. Indeed, they have overlooked Hume's own way. In explaining this, I will supplement Hume's insights by adapting Ryle's thinking on knowledge-how and knowledge-that. We will also see wh…Read more
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Areas of Interest
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Epistemology |
Metaphilosophy |
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Action |
M&E, Misc |
Philosophy, Introductions and Anthologies |